Brooklyn Eagle
9 December 1888    
Page:10

STROLLS  UPON  OLD  LINES 

Crow Hill and Some of Its Suggestions. 

The Bedford Hills
A Region Now Traced by the Eastern Parkway
The Genesis of a name
French's Stopping' Place. 


	There was a rhyme in one of the children's magazines not very long ago which ran somewhat in 
this wise:
     
	Oh, sunflower tall,     
	Leaning over the wall, 
	You think jolly Tim is exceedingly small; 
    But jolly Tim knows     
	That he grows and he grows, 
	Else how would he ever keep up with his clothes?     

	Likening' the great City of New York to the sunflower, it no doubt feels, as it looks across 
the East River, that jolly Tim Brooklyn is exceedingly small, and yet it knows, and as do we all, 
that "it grows and it grows, else how would it ever keep up with its" boundaries, as laid out by 
the enterprising dealer in city lots? Ii is no windy inflation, either, nor does its corpulence 
come from beer, but from a good, wholesome diet of flesh and blond in the shape of natural increase 
and new immigration. Brooklyn real estate may be held high in someplaces, but in no section is 
it inflated after the "wild cat" method. It may in some instances be held as high as it is likely 
to be worth for the next five years, but under no probable contingency will it ever be worth loss. 

	Brooklyn started in at Het Veer, now Fulton Ferry; it grew up to Breuckelen at the present 
City Hall;  it readied over and absorbed Waalboght and Krenpelbosch; it crept down the coast to 
Gowannas: it climbed the hills to Bedford and, gaining strength, it reached out its arms and 
gathered in Williamsburgh, Greenpoint and Bushwick, and finally East New York and New Lots have 
been taken into its capacious maw; and though its boundaries have thus been continually extended, 
"it grows and it grows," and consequently "keeps up with its clothes." 

    There is one section of Brooklyn which has not, for obvious reasons, grown ao rapidly as those 
parts along the highways, but which is now being filled up. I refer to the Bedford Hills. Two 
centuries ago the Green Mountains extended "up the coast from Gravesend Bay, across the present 
Greenwood Cemetery and Prospect Park and on in an easterly direction to East New York, the Cemetery 
of the Evergreens and thence continuing to the northeast over Long Island to Oyster Bay. 

	Those hills in Revolutionary days wore covered with woods and, the woodland within the limits of 
the present City of Brooklyn having been apportioned to the different towns years before, the name of 
the range had been changed and different sections of the Green Mountains were known by different 
names. The high hill just east of the park entrance was known as Mount Prospect and the hills generally 
ceased to named the Green Mountains and became the Mount Prospect range. That portion of the woodland 
adjoining Bedford which extended from the park to the Rockaway footpath, which passed through what is 
now known as the Cemetery of the Evergreens, also became known as the Bedford Hills', while those 
hills cast of the footpath were known during the Revolution as Bushwick Hills. 

    As time passed on the Bedford Hills were divided into sections and had different names applied to 
each. The Battle Pass, in Prospect Park, became Valley Grove. Then came Prospect Hill and Bedford 
Hills. The Clove road cut through the range just east of what is now Nostrand avenue, and down in 
this hollow, just north of the southern city line, Ralph MALBONE, a well known citizen of Brooklyn, 
laid off a number of city lots and started what was subsquently known as Malboneville, along in the 
thirties. The exact boundaries of this section it seems impossible to obtain, but it may be set down
as including the section between the Eastern Parkway and the city line, and from Nostrand to New York 
avenue, although the territory as far west as Rogers and as far east as Brooklyn avenue was sometimes 
included. 

    The Bedford Hills followed the line of the Eastern Parkway, on both sides, until about Buffalo avenue, 
when the trend was more directly east than the Parkway, which followed a course slightly south of east 
and up to and around the west and north side of East New York. The Bedford Hills included, in a general 
way, all the territory between Atlantic avenue and the southern boundary line of the city, from Prospect 
Hill to east of Buffalo avenue, where the hills, as stated, did not extend south of the Parkway. 

    East of Malboneville came Crow Hill, extending to about Schenectady avenue. Then Weeksville covered 
the territory to Buffalo avenue, and beyond the Hunterfly road to East New York was known as Carrsville. 
These divisions have existed for about lifty years. It is only possible to give these divisions in a 
general way, as the "oldest inhabitants" do not agree in laying out the boundaries, and it is a question 
if the lines were ever very decidedly fixed. As to the locution of Crow Hill, for instance, it seems 
almost impossible to definitely locate it. Some persons go so far as to include the whole range from 
Bedford to Buffalo avenue in Crow Hill, but this is obviously wrong, the the Clove road cuts deeply 
into the range and would make it necessary to speak of it as Crow " Hills " to be correct. Others say 
it was on both sides of the Clove road near the Penitentiary; or, in other words, that it occupied 
the territory known as Malboneville. Why any one should call a gulch or valley Crow Hill is a mystery. 
Still others locate this will o' the wisp in the four blocks between Buffalo and Utica avenues, St. 
Marks avenue and Park place, and assign as a reason for its name that a great many negroes used to live 
there. That this latter section was within the limits of Weeksville there appear's to be no question 
among those familiar with the neighborhood, and this supposed origin of the name does not hold good. 
After diligent inquiry I have come to the conclusion that the limits laid down by Bartley FRENCH, who 
was born in Malboneville, comes nearest to the correct boundaries. They include the hill from Brooklyn 
avenue to Schenectady. 

	John JENNISON, a horse trader on Fulton street, who used to live near the Clove road, unravels the 
mystery of the name, or at least gives the only really plausible reason for it. He says there used to 
be bone factory on the hill and the name came from the large number of crows that flocked there. 
Probably tho best known locality of thow mentioned, the earliest to be laid of in lots, and likely to 
be the last to come prominently into the market, in Malboneville. 

	Along about the commencement of the present  century Ralph MALBONE kept a grocery on Fulton street, 
on the point, made by the junction of Willoughby avenue, and now occupied by the Jones Building. He 
made money and invested in real estate, and about 1830 he had a real estate office where the City Hall 
now stands. He bought land on the Clove road, near the southern city line, and laid out lots, which 
was the origin of Malboneville. About the year 1833 he built a house fronting on the Clove road, 
between what are now Crown and Montgomery streets, which subsequently became well known to all sporting 
men, far and near, as French's. Tom FRENCH came from Ireland about 1810, and engaged in peddling. He 
first had a grocery where the Penitentiary stands, but subsequently bought the home on Clove road from 
MALBONE and had his store there. FRENCH used to keep groceries, dry goods and liquors and, in fact, a 
little of everything that goes to make up the stock of a general country store. Mrs. FRENCH kept the 
store, while Tom traveled around the country peddling his wares. Subsequently the honse became a 
regular roadside tavern and was a great resort for the sporting gentry previous to and during the 
Civil War. In ante bellum times there was a stage line from Fulton Ferry to Bedford and thence, via 
the old Clove road to Canarsie, then, as now, a great resort for fisherman. 

	FRENCH'S was the stopping place of the stages. It was also the half way house for the frmers for 
the neighborhood of Canarsie, Flatlands, Flatbush, Sheepshead Bay, Coney Island, etc., and it was no 
uncommon thing in those days to see 100 farm wagons and other vehicles grouped in the neighborhood 
of FRENCH'S. 

    The house is one story and a half and has a basement. It is arranged with two large rooms in tho 
basement, which were formerly used as store and kitchen, thero being doors leading into them from the 
front of the house, on either side of the-high stoop. On the first floor is a hall, with a large room 
on either side, one of which was used as a barroom, the other as a reception room,  while on the upper 
floor are five bedrooms. A distinction used to be made in customers. the cheaper class of customers, 
who went into the grocery for their drinks, got them (whisky) for 3 cents a glass, while the more 
aristocratic of the sporting men and farmers, who patronized the bar upstairs, paid 6 cents a glass 
for the same liquor.  So much for style. On the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving day, Christmas and 
New Year's and other holidays FRENCH'S was a great resort for games. Crowds would congregate there 
from the city, and the country too, and participate in shooting matches, raffles, cock fights, foot 
and horse races and similar amusements. They used to tie a chicken to a stake and then charge the boys 
10 cents a shot. The 100 yard horse or foot race, " two wet and two dry," used to be a favorite amusement. 
That is to say, the parties would make up the race and bet $3 on the result, " two wet and two dry "
 meaning that the winner should keep his own $3 and treat the crowd with the winnings. 

    But this once noted hostelry lost its claim to patronage when the old Clove road ceased to be a 
thoroughfare, and for the past twenty years has been a private dwelling. It is now occupied by Tom 
FRENCH'S only surviving daughter, Mrs. WELSH. The outbuildings of the tavern still stand: the old 
pump remains in front, where horses can be watered as of yore, though tha road has been closed at the 
Eastern Parkway and ceased to be traveled, and a row of trees in front and one to the south indicates 
what used to be the tavern plaza. Out of eleven children of Tom FRENCH but five remain: 
Mrs. WELSH, mentioned above; 
Captain Henry FRENCH, of the police force; 
William, who is Supervisor of the Twenty-fourth Ward; 
Thomas, inspector for the Board of Health, and 
Bartley, who keeps a sale and exchange stable. 

    To tha east of Malboneville, in tho neighborhood of what would be Brooklyn avenue, there used to 
be odd localities, with odder characters inhabiting them. Most. of the middle aged men of to-day who 
were reared within the city limit at Bedford or south thereof can remember Snake Hollow, Kelley's Hill 
and Stony Hill, and can recall Snake Mary, the Indian half breed; Papoose Indian, the fortune teller, 
and Peg Riley, the Queen of the Wards. The fair Peggy had a house that was on the Flatbush line at 
what would be the terminus of Brooklyn avenue. It was half in the city and half in Flatbush, and when 
the officers would go after her for violations of the law in regard to liquor she would retire to the 
Beourity of the end of her house across the line. 

    But the march of improvement is going on. 

	The Eastern Parkway, frequently called tha Boulevard, swept through the Bedford Hills -and leveled 
a great portion of them; gradually the great banlis are being cut away and the hollowa are being filled; 
the hill east of Bedford is almost gone; the remainder of the Clove road down about Malboneville is being 
obliterated; Crow Hill is losing its crown, and streets are being out through it; the hill is being 
dumped into the hollow. and there is a general leveling going on. Now is positively the last exhibition 
of those different localities in anything like their natural form, for the level, the compass and the 
carts are at work. Within the next five years the Bedford Hills will have nearly disappeared, and
inside of ten years there will be nothing left of them, and where they stood will be graded streets 
and thousands of dwellings, a part of this magically growing city.

H, J. 8. 

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